Advisory Board Has Been Constituted To Discuss Holding CLAT 2024 In Regional Languages: NLU Consortium Informs Delhi HC
The Delhi High Court last week on Friday was informed by the Consortium of National Law Universities that an Advisory Board has been constituted to, inter alia, to discuss the issue of conducting CLAT in the scheduled language option and advise the Governing Body and Executive Committee of the colleges who participate in the CLAT examination.
The Division Bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad was considering the Public Interest Litigation filed by Sudhanshu Pathak through Advocate Sakshi Raghav under Article 226 of the Constitution, seeking direction to the Consortium of National Law Universities to conduct CLAT (UG)- 2024 (Common Law Admission Test), scheduled, to be held in December 2023 not only in English language but in all other regional languages given in the Eight schedule of the Constitution of India.
Senior Advocate Jayant Mehta along with Advocates Akash Vajpai and Sakshi Raghav appeared for the Petitioner while Senior Advocate Siddharth Aggarwal appeared for the consortium of NLUs.
In the previous hearing, the High Court had remarked that if the NEET and JEE exams are conducted in multiple languages, the Court sees no problem as to why the CLAT exam cannot be conducted in the regional languages along with English. The Bench had also directed that as the CLAT 2024 is scheduled for December 2023, timely action is required in the petition or else it will become infructuous. The High Court had asked the Consortium of National Law Universities to clarify their stand and directed them to file a reply
On the contrary, in the recent affidavit filed, the High Court was told by the Consortium that they have announced the test pattern and the language mode for the CLAT 2024 examination (to be held in December 2023) already, and many aspirants have started preparing for the same the option for other scheduled options of language is a near impossibility for the 2024 CLAT to be held in December 2023.
It was also submitted in the affidavit that the language of instruction in all Member NLUs is English. This stems from the national character of NLUs, where students from all 28 states and the Union Territories, with diverse mother tongues, study together, thereby requiring a common medium of instruction. They also stated that it will require very precise and careful translation to ensure absolute parity in the difficulty levels of a question from the critical reasoning and comprehension testing sections if translated to a different language.
The High Court in its order noted "Learned Senior Counsel Mr. Siddharth Aggarwal has informed this Court that an Advisory Board has been constituted to, inter alia, discuss the issue of conducting CLAT in scheduled language option and advise the Governing Body and Executive Committee of the colleges who participate in the CLAT examination. The meeting of the Advisory Board is scheduled to be held in the month of August 2023 and the Advisory Board will certainly look into the issue involved in the present case."
It further noted that "It has been submitted by learned Senior Counsel, Mr. Jayant Mehta that the examination in question is scheduled to be held in the month of December 2023 and, therefore, the decision by the Advisory Board be taken on an early date." Accordingly, the High Court directed that the Advisory Board is requested to take a decision on the issue to hold the CLAT Examination in regional languages and the outcome of the decision taken by the Advisory Board be informed to this Court on the next date of hearing.
The Court also asked the Bar Council of India and Union of India to file a reply positively before the next date of hearing and adjourned the matter for September 1, 2023.
Cause Title: Sudhanshu Pathak v. Consortium of National Law Universities & Ors [W.P.(C) 3132/2023]
